Joe Biden At Iowa Inauguration Ball: 'I'm Proud To Be President Of The United States' (VIDEO)

* VP says "proud to be president" at inauguration ball * Iowa key state in choosing presidential candidates * Biden has hinted will stand in 2016 (Adds bullet points) By Samuel P. Jacobs WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Was it just another slip of the tongue by Vice President Joe Biden, or a preview of the next presidential campaign in 2016? Hours before he and President Barack Obama were due to be sworn in for their second four-year terms, Biden told supporters at the Iowa State Society inauguration ball late Saturday: "I'm proud to be president of the United States." The audience laughed and then cheered. Biden's son Beau, Delaware's attorney general, interrupted his father and told the crowd he had misspoken. Although Biden will be a few days short of his 74th birthday on the next election day in 2016, he has hinted he is considering a run for president. Biden's unannounced appearance at the "First in the Nation" ball in Washington was not too surprising. The state was a key to the Obama-Biden team's victory over Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in the Nov. 6 election. And because Iowa is an early battleground in the state-by-state process that determines the political parties' candidates for president, any big party thrown by state officials this weekend was virtually certain to draw at least one or two potential contenders for the White House in 2016. Biden, known for the occasional gaffe on the campaign trail, corrected himself, and returned to a favorite line from the fall campaign. "I'm proud to be vice president of the United States," he said, "but I am prouder to be Barack Obama's, President Barack Obama's, vice president."

"THE CAMPAIGN HAS ALREADY BEGUN" He went on to say he had dropped by to thank Iowans for supporting the Democratic ticket in the election. "I came to say thank you," Biden told those gathered at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, a short walk from the White House. "Just simply thank you." Showing appreciation to Iowa, an industrial and farm state that is home to 3 million people, is an expected courtesy in national politics because of the state's role in separating contenders from pretenders in each presidential race. In early 2008, the results in the Iowa caucuses convinced many Democrats the Obama could win the Democratic nomination over former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, now Obama's secretary of state. Next to Clinton, Biden is widely seen as being at the front of the ranks of potential Democratic contenders in 2016. Also in the crowd at the Iowa party was Maryland's Democratic governor, Martin O'Malley. He was a frequent surrogate for Obama in 2012 and is also seen by many Democrats as a potential contender for president - meaning he could be spending a lot of time with Iowans during the next three years. Earlier, O'Malley made his way through a V.I.P. room where there were cocktails made with Templeton Rye, an Iowa spirit. He chose beer. He had three more stops to go Saturday night. "I have campaigned in Iowa before," O'Malley said, referring to his work on behalf of other Democratic candidates. "I have great affection for Iowa." This summer Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, invited O'Malley to his annual steak fry, a traditional trek for Democrats in need of an Iowa introduction. "It's a long way away," said Bob Lydick, 63, a native of Clarinda, Iowa, who was at the party. "But the (2016) campaign has already begun." (Editing by David Lindsey and Andrew Heavens)

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(May 23, 2010) -- As President Barack Obama prepared to announce the passage of his landmark health care legislation, Vice President Joe Biden had a memorable slip of the tongue, dropping an F-bomb on live television. "This is a big f*ck*ng deal," he said. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

(March 28, 2011) -- A journalist covering Biden's appearance at a Florida fundraiser found himself in a sticky spot. The vice president's communications staff kept Orlando sentinel reporter Scott Powers in a closet prior to Biden's speech for Bill Nelson. The VP's team offered its "sincere apologies" to Powers "for the lack of a better hold room." (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

(April 13, 2011) -- Was Biden catching some z's? Cameras appeared to catch the vice president dozing during President Obama's speech at George Washington University.

(Jan. 19, 2012) -- During a speech in San Francisco, Biden made an embarrassing error with the city's sports teams. In advance of the 49ers' NFC Championship game with the New York Giants, Biden said: "The Giants [are] on their way to the Super Bowl." His confusion possibly stemmed from the fact that the San Francisco's Major League baseball team is also called the Giants. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

(March 28, 2012) -- While campaigning in Iowa, Biden blasted GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's record on jobs. He charged that Romney is "consistently wrong" on manufacturing, pointing to a photo album factory that closed under Bain Capital's watch. "Mitt, thanks for the memories," Biden quipped. (Photo by Andrea Melendez-Pool/Getty Images)

(March 28, 2012) -- On another Iowa campaign stop, Biden flubbed the name of a local school leader, referring to Scott Community College President Dr. Theresa Paper as "Dr. Pepper." (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

(May 6, 2012) -- In an interview with NBC's "Meet The Press," Biden announced his support for gay marriage. "I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties," he said.

(May 10, 2012) -- Immediately before Obama revealed his own support for gay marriage, Biden apologized to the president for making his announcement ahead of the president's moment. The AP reported that the duo met in the Oval Office, where Obama accepted Biden's apology, knowing that the VP was speaking from his heart. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

(July 11, 2012) -- At the National Council of La Raza's annual conference, Biden turned heads with a sex joke surrounding his home life growing up. "By the way -- having your grandpop living with you, having your great aunt, your uncle, for real," Biden remarked. "Those walls were awful thin. I wonder how the hell my parents did it. But that's a different story." (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

(August 14, 2012) -- At a campaign rally in Virginia, Biden accused Romney of looking to loosen regulations on Wall Street. "They're going to put y'all back in chains," Biden told the crowd, turning heads. Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul said the comment was "not acceptable in our political discourse," while Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley added that it was an "indelicate choice of words."